What the heck is wrong with my wireless router

[ninjainspandex]

I have had this router for 2 years its a Netgear N300 and it has worked flawlessly up until today. I thought it just needed a power cycle and that seemed to work for like 10 minutes and then it would stop working, not just my PC but any device and xbox 360/PS4 connected to it. It's not my internet because when I plug my PC directly into my modem it works great and has been for the past hour. I have power cycled my router like 10 times now and keeps doing the same, will work great for 10 minutes and then it gives me some DNS error and websites just never load. I even put a paperclip in the back to restore it back to factory defaults and that didn't help the problem. even when its hardwired into the router it still does this.

So is there any tech wizards out there that might know what my problem is? Maybe I should just get a new router, anyone have any good brands? Nothing fancy, I mostly just surf, watch netflix and game on it.

[Anapan]

I've never had good experiences with Netgear. I've had them and worked on them lots. They have so little ram that just browsing and streaming newer sites than what existed back in the day tend to confuse and crash them requiring regular power cycling. Newer ones with new firmware are still not good for large amounts of active torrents or other multi-connected surfing afaict. Your fix may be as simple as a firmware upgrade. The last few I worked on were years out of date, and the latest drivers for their USB devices were updated that year - support for your product is there on their website.

Should that not work, My new solution is ASUS routers.

Telus gives us in Canada these Zyxel modem/router combos. They suck - not very configurable and offer sketchy service even with regular usage. The main problem is they crash all-the-time if you're getting the most of your internet - Netflix, Facebook, Multiple Cellphones on Wifi, Youtube, etc... Often when I do a housecall computer fix, the main problem was their modem needed a reboot so their internet worked but not well...

For years I swore by Linksys WRT54G - early models with more ram. I installed them in
clients and family's houses with great success - and they were bought for less than $20. When connected to the new modems they crash as well after moderate usage.

Old tech just doesn't do well with new protocols? New internet protocols demand new hardware? Whatever the reason I needed something better.

The new one I've been using as suggested by my network security tech friend's advice is a mid level - budget model ASUS, flashed with DDWRT Tomato. It's model:

ASUS RT-N66U

Once flashed (an ordeal) it can do 2.4ghz and 5ghz WFI at very long ranges, and so much more, but the main pull is the easy, well supported/documented front-end control panel. It's so simple, but also so configurable - it's unrivaled. This router will be better than the commercial firmware ones worth over $500 after it's flashed. It's ultra stable and it's CPU and ram are capable of handling more load that it's ports allow.

I can provide more instruction and links if you're interested, tho the process is well documented and tested with a quick google search.

Right now I have my crappy Telus modem in DMZ mode and two of those ASUS routers distributing internet all over to 5 wired computers, 3 wired consoles and multiple other wireless devices. It's been stable since I set it up almost a year ago. That's a new record at my place.

At any time I can login and see that the main one is using 23% cpu and 35% ram at my regular (heavy) usage. Good!

My friend turned one into a seedbox with NAS so his torrents operated on a different subnet from his regular traffic and couldn't interfere (completely self contained) with his regular internet activities.

I'd be happy to send you a Linksys WRT54G for cost of shipping - I have lots.

[ninjainspandex]

oh firmware upgrade I didn't know I could that. I assume from the page where I setup the password and adjust settings when I type in 198.168.1.1?

[ExedExes]

Yes, but check with Netgear's site and type in the router's model you're using to download the firmware first. It will probably be a file with the .bin extension. From there, you go to your router's setup page (usually 192.168.1.1) and find the place where you can apply the new firmware to the router.

I still have a WRT54GS and it's been working really good. That's in use in another location right now.

[ninjainspandex]

So update, I left my router unplugged all day while at work. Plugged it back in and now it is working fine, maybe I wasn't leaving my router unplugged long enough when trying to power cycle I thought a couple minutes would be enough but I guess not haha.

[Niode]

So update, I left my router unplugged all day while at work. Plugged it back in and now it is working fine, maybe I wasn't leaving my router unplugged long enough when trying to power cycle I thought a couple minutes would be enough but I guess not haha.

Could have just overheated. They're basically mini computers with insufficient cooling.

[ninjainspandex]

So update, I left my router unplugged all day while at work. Plugged it back in and now it is working fine, maybe I wasn't leaving my router unplugged long enough when trying to power cycle I thought a couple minutes would be enough but I guess not haha.

Could have just overheated. They're basically mini computers with insufficient cooling.

Now that I think about it, it was rather close to my heat register. I have since moved it away

[marurun]

Most of the wireless routers I have owned got flaky after a few years of use. The wired ones last longer, but still often eventually flake out. They aren't really built all that solidly unless you are getting the business-grade stuff.

[jp1]

I put Asus firmware on my netgear n750, its been a champ ever since. However, in general I recommend Cisco/linksys stuff, I've got g routers old as dirt with dd-wrt firmware pulling duty as wireless adapters for the kids Xbox and such, never have a problem with them.